How and When Do Policymakers Use Evidence? Taking Politics into Account

Evidence-based policymaking is both a technical and a political undertaking. Policymakers need the skills and knowledge to understand and articulate their evidence needs and to source and evaluate evidence. How they do this, and how they then apply evidence to diagnose and solve policy problems, is conditioned by their interests, values and beliefs. But organisational systems and processes also influence how policymakers use evidence, particularly macro-level processes such as national development planning. This chapter examines the use of evidence in national and subnational policymaking in Indonesia, focusing on how the Indonesian bureaucracy and its processes and systems for evidence-informed policymaking interact with political and organisational factors to shape policymakers’ demand for and use of evidence. The chapter also offers some reflections on how programmes to strengthen the use of evidence in policymaking can navigate politics as they work to build policymakers’ capacities and strengthen institutional systems and processes.